Marvel Studios Exec. Producer on Gender Equality

Although it’s not entirely a surprise given the studios’ tendency to push the bar with the scale of their films, Marvel Studios executive producer, Victoria Alonso, confirmed tonight during a speech for the Visual Effects Society that next summer’s Joss Whedon-helmed Avengers: Age of Ultron will feature over 3,000 VFX shots. That’s roughly 500 more than this year’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and 250 more than Guardians of the Galaxy!

Building those effects will take the involvement of artists all over the world with plans currently calling for the utilization of seven to twelve different VFX vendors. The Hollywood Reporter relates Alonso’s belief in making the extended creative team of Marvel’s films as international as possible, allowing for ideas to come in from as many sources as possible.

Alonso, who also serves as Marvel’s VP of visual effects and post production, also announced that she’s like to see more gender-neutrality on the creative playing field.

“You’ve got to get the girls in here, boys,” Alonso said. ““I have been with you beautiful, handsome, talented, creative men in dark rooms for two decades and I can tell you those rooms are better when there are a few of us in them. So as you take this with you, please remember that it’s okay to allow the ladies in. They’re smart, they’re talented. They bring a balance that you need.”

Does the same go for Marvel’s upcoming marquee plans? Variety posed to her that very question, reminding her that the Distinguished Competition just announced Wonder Woman for 2017.

Captain Marvel

“If it were up to me,” Alonso said of Marvel’s long expected announcement of a female-led superhero film, “It would be today.”

Alonso has long been a vocal champion of equal rights in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She and Hayley Atwell famously teased the Agent Carter television series during a 2013 Comic-Con presentation. It was the same one, in fact, that Marvel EP Louis D’Esposito got a loud audience reminder that many fans would rather see a film titled : Captain Marvel than one called Miss Marvel.

Ryan Sprague is an author, screenwriter, and playwright splitting homes between New York City and Los Angeles. He is also an investigative journalist specializing in the topic of UFOs. He's interviewed witnesses in all walks of life about UFO sightings and possible encounters with extraterrestrials. He's spoken exclusively with military and intelligence officials who have convinced him of a legitimate and authentic phenomenon involving highly advanced aerial threats to our skies. He is the author of Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon and is also a contributing writer to the anthology, UFOs: Reframing the Debate. He is the creator and host of the Somewhere in the Skies Podcast on the Entertainment One Podcast Network and is a frequent contributor to the Rogue Planet news site. Speaking on the UFO topic, he has been featured on ABC News, Fox News, The Science Channel, and is a regular on The Travel Channel's hit television series, Mysteries at the Museum. His work can be found at http://www.somewhereintheskies.com